Mark Fowler
Not to be confused with Mark Fowler, the 2016 EastEnders character. Mark Albert Fowler is the son of Arthur and Pauline Fowler and brother of Martin and Michelle. Storylines 1985-1987 Mark is first of three children born to Albert Square residents Arthur Fowler and his wife Pauline. Initially, a teenage Mark gets involved in drugs with local thug Nick Cotton, attempts to join a racist organisation known as The New Movement, is a suspect in Reg Cox's murder, and generally clashes with his parents. With no solution to these problems in sight, he abruptly leaves home without telling anyone. He is not seen again until eight months later when he contacts his parents through a runaways' agency and Pauline and Arthur find him in Southend-on-Sea. Mark is living with an older Swedish woman named Ingrid and her two children, John and Melanie , who call Mark "Daddy". He and Ingrid split up soon afterwards and Mark moves around the country. Mark returns to Walford several times for brief visits. In July, he brings his Welsh friend Owen Hughes. The duo cause problems after Cassie Carpenter steals their cannabis and her parents, Tony Carpenter and Hannah Carpenter, catch her smoking it; the Carpenters refuse to speak to the Fowlers for some time afterwards. In November, Pauline receives news that Mark is in Borstal detention centre for drug offences, burglary, and assaulting a policeman. Visiting him, Pauline finds him unrepentant but due for release in a few weeks. After his release he briefly returns to Walford, but refuses to stay despite Pauline's pleas. He is not seen again until Christmas the same year, when he visits unexpectedly to spend the day with his family. Mark astutely guesses that Den Watts is his niece's father but keeps this to himself. This is the last time Mark is seen for over two years. 1990-2003 Mark returns to Albert Square in September 1990 as a changed man. He is more caring and stable, having grown out of his rebellious stage. His new maturity is due to the fact that he has contracted HIV, which has forced him to become more responsible. Mark develops a close friendship with Diane Butcher and initially doesn't tell anyone about his HIV status. But as he and Diane grow closer, he finally tells her the truth. He believes that he contracted the virus from Gill Robinson, his girlfriend in Newcastle, who visits briefly later that year but leaves when she sees him kissing Diane. Mark initially tells Gill that he isn't infected but later tells the truth. Mark's relationship with Diane never becomes serious but she is a good friend and confidante and persuades Mark to have counselling at the Terrence Higgins Trust. Mark initially turns on his male counsellor, relaying his bitterness at being a potential AIDS victim, but later feels the benefits of the counselling. Mark loves Diane for keeping his secret and he asks her to marry him but she gently refuses and leaves Walford to live in France. Later that year, following the example of a friend Joe Wallace, who had told his parents about being gay and HIV-positive, Mark decides to tell his parents. By now, he is dating Rachel Kominski, who advises him not to but Mark is tired of the pretence. On Boxing Day Mark tells Pauline and Arthur that he is HIV-positive. They sit in stunned silence while he scatters helpful leaflets around the house and then goes away for a while. On his return, he faces Pauline's irrational terror and Arthur's hostility. Arthur's ignorance is apparent initially as he fears that Mark will pass HIV on to him; he even bleaches everything Mark touches to avoid infection. Pauline and Michelle Fowler are understandably distraught but help Arthur to understand the illness, and are a huge support to Mark. Mark's relationship with Rachel ends, and the animosity at home sends Mark back to his girlfriend Gill, who moves to London and becomes seriously ill. Gill's HIV has already progressed into AIDS and her deterioration is rapid. She is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and goes into a hospice. Mark realises that he is in love with her and asks her to marry him. Mark and Gill marry, and their honeymoon consists of one night in a hotel, before Gill returns to the hospice and dies. Mark later befriends local teenage tearaway Mandy Salter but their friendship is severely tested when she becomes obsessed with him. Mark, still grieving for Gill, is horrified when he discovers that Mandy has been reading his late wife's diary and has dressed up in her clothes. Despite this, he invites Mandy to live with him after Den's friend Kathy Beale throws her out. On Christmas Day, Mandy goes to visit her mother but is attacked by her stepfather; Mark arrives just in time to rescue her and invites her for Christmas dinner at the Fowler household. Mark takes over running the family fruit and vegetable stall in the market after his uncle, Pete Beale, leaves. He also begins casually dating his sister's housemate Shelley Lewis, but is reluctant to tell her about his HIV status. Whilst on a trip to Amsterdam, Shelley makes it clear to Mark that she wants to sleep with him, forcing him to admit his HIV status. Shelley is furious that he did not think to tell her this before and tells him she never wants to see him again. Mark takes the rejection badly and stops taking his HIV medication. During Christmas that year, he is rushed to hospital after collapsing. Mandy visits him in hospital and learns that he has HIV. When Shelley finds out that Mark is ill, she returns and admits that she really cares for him and they reconcile. However, Shelley tries to rush things by asking Mark to meet her family and go on holiday with her parents. She becomes infatuated and tries to spend as much time with him as she can. Mark fears that the relationship is moving too quickly and Mark decides to end it. When he tries to tell Shelley this, she uses emotional blackmail to stop him, saying that she has risked her health being with him so he owes her. When this doesn't work, she threatens to tell everyone about his HIV status, but leaves Walford when her bluff doesn't work. Mark's friend Joe Wallace dies of an AIDS-related illness, and after visiting him in the hospice, he meets a Scottish woman named Ruth Aitken, who is also visiting a friend. After a brief conversation, the two decide to go for a drink together. They start dating and Ruth copes with his HIV status but her father, a strict Presbyterian minister, refuses to give his blessing to her relationship with Mark and disowns her when she announces her plans to marry Mark. They marry in Scotland but problems surface in their marriage. She persuades Mark - and herself - that she is happy about not having children (due to the inevitable spread of the AIDS virus to herself and the baby), but it is soon clear that she is fooling herself. Mark is injured in a pub brawl during which he saved the square's local hardman, Grant Mitchell, from getting glassed by a punter. However, after calling the ambulance, Grant overhears Ruth telling the paramedics about Mark's HIV status. This escalates later on when Kathy's infant child Ben becomes seriously ill, and Grant informs his brother Phil, the child's father, about the situation. Phil and Kathy soon learn about Mark's condition, which causes Ruth to lose her job as a child minder. To add to his problems, Mark is devastated when Arthur dies of a brain haemorrhage in May 1996, after being injured in a prison riot several weeks earlier. On the day of his father's funeral, Mark becomes angry that Willy Roper had framed Arthur for embezzlement and assaults Willy at the cemetery. He believes that he was the one who caused Arthur's death. Mark's HIV status becomes public knowledge. The depth of ignorance concerning HIV does not help and, led by Peggy Mitchell, the residents begin to boycott Mark's fruit and vegetable stall, fearing they will catch the virus. Pauline springs to her son's defence and she and Peggy have a vicious fight, but even Pauline cannot defuse the prejudice, and Mark comes home to find the words "AIDS scum" graffitied on his wall. This is too much and he decides to present his neighbours with a few facts about his illness in The Queen Victoria; firstly by telling them that he does not have AIDS but is HIV positive, which is a non-contagious virus, forcing them to acknowledge their bigotry. Peggy remains uncertain, but is forced to realise that Mark might appreciate some support when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Mark and Ruth foster a six-year-old girl named Jessie Moore, but returning her to her mother proves too heartbreaking and their marriage goes into crisis. When Mark's cousin Conor Flaherty shows an interest in Ruth, Mark becomes jealous and the relationship falls apart. After they split, Ruth succumbs to Conor's charms and becomes pregnant by him. She leaves Walford with Conor, leaving Mark heartbroken. In 2000, Mark's past troubles resurface when Nick returns to the square and the two embark on a longstanding feud. This soon gets Mark's younger brother, Martin, involved when Nick attempts to ensnare him with drugs - as he once did with Mark. Towards the end of the year, Nick gets one over Mark after giving Martin ecstasy. When Mark discovers this, he decides to settle the score with his tormentor once and for all. Mark spikes Nick's drink, leads him up to the Walford viaduct, and watches delightedly as the intoxicated Nick falls - just as midnight strikes and 2001 commences. Nick survives the fall, but is left severely crippled and vows revenge against Mark. He enlists his son Ashley, who had recently befriended Martin, to take revenge on Mark. However, when Ashley is hesitant to kill Mark himself, Nick takes matters into his own hands and drains the brake fluid on his motorbike. The next day, Ashley - not knowing that his father had done - steals Mark's motorbike and attempts to run him over in a last-ditch attempt to impress his father, but is killed after he ends up crashing into the launderette. On the eve of Ashley's funeral, Mark and Nick have their final showdown when Nick attempts to kill Mark with a knife. Mark overpowers Nick, who then blurts out that he should've been the one on the motorbike instead of Ashley - thus exposing his involvement in his son's death. Mark berates Nick for causing his own son's death, then leaves him to be disowned by his mother Dot - who had just overheard Nick confess to his role in Ashley's death. At the end of Ashley's funeral, Mark watches as Nick leaves the square shortly afterwards and mutters to himself "Some people you're just glad to see the back of"; their rivalry is brought to an end as Nick leaves the square and never sees Mark again. By 2001, Nick wasn't the only enemy Mark had been clashing with throughout the year. He embarked on a conflict with Phil after learning that he had been mistreating his girlfriend Lisa Shaw, whom Mark has been growing fond of from that point. Mark soon takes Lisa to live with him after she leaves Phil, and they start dating - much to Pauline's horror. Mark also defends Kathy's son Ian from Phil on several occasions, particularly when Mark witnesses Phil attacking Ian and is forced to separate them. When Phil is shot on the night his nemesis Steve Owen and Lisa's best friend Mel Healy get married, Mark becomes a prime suspect as the police gather information on his hatred for Phil - which leads his godson Jamie and cousin Billy to each separately accuse Mark of shooting Phil. One month later, Mark learns that Phil has recovered and checked himself out of the hospital to exact revenge - prompting him to find Lisa in order to protect her from Phil. When he finds them at her house, Mark learns from Phil that it was Lisa who shot him. Lisa confesses to shooting Phil. Despite this, Mark continues to defend Lisa and tells Phil that she isn't totally responsible for the crime - stating that the abuse Phil had inflicted upon Lisa is what set the course of his shooting in the first place. Phil grudgingly comes to accept these terms, and decides to cover Lisa's involvement by framing his ex-business partner Dan Sullivan for the crime. Mark and Lisa observe Phil planning to incriminate Dan in the shooting, even going as far as to get Steve and Mel involved with his plan. However, Dan is found not guilty and he takes revenge on Phil and Steve by kidnapping Mel and fleeing the country with a money ransom - all the while believing that Steve had shot Phil, meaning that Dan was never aware that Lisa had shot Phil in the first place. At the point Phil's actions have resulted in Dan fleeing the country and Steve's marriage with Mel were left on the verge of facing jeopardy, Mark and Lisa conduct a plan to pretend that she is expecting Mark's baby - as he had grown to love Lisa so much ever since her troubles with Phil had started. To facilitate their lie, Mark insists that he'd taken all necessary precautions in relation to his HIV and they fool everyone for a while. He later proposes to Lisa shortly after her baby Louise is born. However, Mark is devastated to learn that Phil is actually the child's biological father. This Phil discovers when Grant's former wife Sharon informs him about Louise's true parentage, and Phil vows to take an active role in his daughter's upbringing. Mark and Lisa marry, but their happiness is short-lived: Lisa is still very much in love with Phil and Phil knows it so he seduces her in order to get more access to Louise. After Sharon discovers Phil's intentions, she talks him out of his plan and he ends the affair with Lisa, but Mark finds out and after just five months of marriage Lisa leaves Mark and resumes her affair with Phil. This causes Mark to break down by the time he eventually discovers this. After confronting Phil about the discovery, Mark almost rapes Lisa. Horrified by his actions, Mark leaves Walford for a short while. However, Lisa soon realizes her mistake living with Phil and wants to reconcile with Mark, but Pauline refuses to tell her where Mark has gone. Mark eventually returns at Christmas. In January 2003, Mark's doctor tells him that his body is rejecting the medication that will prolong his life and slow down the onset of AIDS. Accepting that he will not live for much longer, he decides to leave rather than let his family see him endure a slow, painful death. On 14 February 2003, he makes a tearful farewell to his family and friends and rides off on his motorbike, although he remains in contact with family. In April 2004, Martin receives a telephone call from Mark's nurse, informing him that Mark has died from an AIDS-related form of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His body is returned to Walford and he is given a heart-felt send-off by the residents. Following his death, Mark would be referenced by his own family and friends during the subsequent years that go on in the square; particularly in 2015 when Nick returns and, after recalling Dot about the time he tried to kill Mark, ultimately dies from a drug overdose. Gallery Mark Fowler (28 March 1985).jpg|Mark Fowler (28 March 1985) Mark Fowler Picture (30 April 1985).jpg|Mark Fowler Picture (30 April 1985) Mark Fowler (David Scarboro).jpg|Mark Fowler played by David Scarboro Mark_Fowler_Cast_Card.png|Mark Fowler - Name Card Mark Fowler Headstone.jpg|Mark Fowler Headstone First and last lines "I notice you ain't asking me." (First line) --- "Bye mum." (Last line) See also *Full list of appearances Category:Main Characters Category:Past Characters Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Original Characters Category:Recasted Characters Category:Kid Characters Category:1968 Births Category:1985 Arrivals Category:1992 Marriages Category:1995 Marriages Category:2002 Marriages Category:2004 Deaths Category:Deceased Characters Category:Beale and Fowler family Category:Medeemey Family Category:Introduced by Tony Holland and Julia Smith